Note 228 — LETTER IV.

Chios was first brought under the immediate dominion of the Sultan by Pialé Pasha in 1566, though it had previously acknowledged his suzerainty and paid tribute. It had been conquered by the Genoese admiral, Simon Vignoso, in 1346. The form of government was so peculiar as to deserve some notice. It is the first example of the territorial administration of a mercantile company of shareholders exercising in a distant country all the duties of a sovereign. Of this form of government the East India Company is the best known specimen. The Genoese treasury in 1346 was so exhausted that the funds for fitting out the twenty-nine galleys of Vignoso’s fleet were raised by private citizens, who subscribed the money in shares. The Republic promised to secure them against all loss, and pledged a portion of its annual revenue to pay the interest. After the conquest of Chios, Vignoso, in virtue of the full powers with which he was invested, established a committee of the subscribers, who administered the Government of Chios, and collected the revenues under the sovereignty of the Republic of Genoa. The contributors had formed themselves into a joint-stock company, according to the established usage at Genoa; and this society or maona assumed the name of the Maona of Scio. The Republic being unable to repay the advances, a convention was concluded between the State and the Maona, by which the shareholders were recognised as the lawful proprietors and administrators of Chios, subject to the terms on which the Greek population had capitulated, for a term of twenty years, during which the Republic reserved the right of resuming possession of the island on repayment of the sum advanced. This, however, the Republic was never able to do, so the arrangement became permanent. The greater part of the shares passed into the hands of the family, or, more correctly speaking, the firm of the Justiniani, and the Joint-Stock Company of Scio was generally called the Maona of the Justiniani. For further details as to the Government of Scio while held by this company, see Finlay, History of Greece, vol. v. ch. ii., from which this note is taken. It must, however, be added that the Government of the company, notwithstanding its defects, was for a long period the least oppressive in the Levant.